New Zealand Woman Sets Record: Runs 311 Miles In 86 Hours Without Sleep

For someone who does not especially enjoy running, Kim Allan is pretty good at it.

Allan, a 47-year-old mother of four from New Zealand, recently broke the record for running without sleep, covering 311 miles in 86 nonstop hours.

For Allan, it's not the running that she enjoys, per se, it's the mental stimulus.

"There's ultra runners who go out and train huge miles - that’s not me," she told a local reporter. "It’s the beating my own mind that I like. Thinking you can’t do something then you go out and do it.”

After breaking her leg a decade ago Allan, a former jockey, determined that when her leg healed she would never "take for granted the ability to get out of bed and walk." She tried to break the world record of 302 miles in 80 hours last year, but she had to stop after experiencing hallucinations and losing all her toe nails.

Allan fought through stomach pain, as well as severe blisters on her feet, this year to finish the unbelievable challenge. She's said that for her, going on a two-hour run is "just a drag." But somehow she was able to will herself through the equivalent of 12 marathons.